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A French toast/grilled cheese hybrid topped with honey-pepper roasted figs.

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“The goal of chefs is to make food an OMG experience — like `Oh my god that was so good,’ ” Canada’s self-proclaimed cheese guru Gurth Pretty said Tuesday while emceeing the Grate Canadian Grilled Cheese Cook-Off at the CNE.

“Or you can call it a foodgasm, as chef Paul Rogalski was just saying,” added Pretty.

The Dairy Farmers of Canada hand-picked four chefs from different regions for its first grilled cheese throwdown.

“It was very important to demonstrate that with some imagination and everyday, ordinary, familiar cheese, you can really accomplish wonderful creations,” said Dairy Farmers’ spokesman Solange Heiss. “But the important thing is not to overpower the cheese with all of the other ingredients.”

The chefs were given just one rule — they had to use cow’s milk Canadian cheese since the organization represents 13,600 farms with dairy cows (not those that milk goat, sheep or water buffalo).

Pretty, who’s president of the Canadian Cheese Society and has written two cheese books, told the crowd that more than 665 varieties of cheese are now produced in Canada. But the chefs stuck with the most popular ones — Camembert, swiss, brie, Gouda, havarti, aged cheddar and mozzarella (albeit smoked).

“I’m a proud Canadian and I’m a believer in a stay-at-home economy, whether it’s the group today — the dairy producers — or anyone else, I want to be part of the message,” said Rogalski, executive chef and co-owner of Rouge restaurant in Calgary.

“I want to help spread the word that we’ve got good stuff.”

Rogalski also wanted user-friendly creations. His Curry Me Brie uses mango chutney and naan, both of which are now sold in most supermarkets. His Cheddar Your Wagons paired deli-sliced roast beef with cheddar and barbecue sauce.

Whistler executive chef Melissa Craig of the Bearfoot Bistro jazzed up a “safe” ham and swiss grilled cheese with arugula and sun-dried tomato-kalamata olive tapenade. Her French Toast Grilled Cheese was more decadent, with egg- and cream-soaked walnut-cranberry bread and Camembert.

Toronto contestant Corbin Tomaszeski of Holts Café concocted a Spicy Shrimp Grilled Cheese and another with Parma prosciutto, smoked mozzarella and roasted garlic. He couldn’t make the cook-off and sent chef Lucas Castle instead.

“If I had to be stuck on an island somewhere, cheese would be there,” Castle said. “It’s total comfort food and brings up memories of being a kid.”

The chefs were allowed to cook on panini makers or in skillets.

Three food writers — the Star’s Corey Mintz, Rita DeMontis from the Toronto Sun, and Lucy Waverman from the Globe and Mail — judged all the contestants and picked the grand champion as well as the “most gooey,” “most aromatic” and “most mouth-watering.”

Michael Howell, chef and co-owner of Tempest restaurant in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, took home top honours (and a trophy featuring a cheese grater) for his Panini Toscano.

Inspired by a pizza he first tasted in Italy and put on the Tempest’s menu, Howell took a ciabatta bun and filled it with havarti, Parma prosciutto, arugula and roasted red pepper.

The only real surprise of the cook-off was that Howell didn’t win for his Dark and Stormy, the Chinese barbecued duck and Gouda grilled cheese. (He wasn’t allowed to barbecue it.)

“Canada is a melting pot of cultures and that sandwich was a melting pot representation of Canada,” said Howell, who lived near Toronto’s Chinatown before moving to Nova Scotia.

The leader of Slow Food Nova Scotia, Howell used havarti and Gouda but usually sources those two cheeses from the Fox Hill Cheese House near his restaurant.

“It’s very important for me to represent my local producers,” said Howell. ‘Dairy farmers are farmers, too, and we have to help them survive.”

Also at Tuesday’s cook-off were sandwiches created by three Canadians in an online contest. Sue Gordon from Manitoba won a trip to Quebec City for her “Fig and Brie Fantasy” grilled cheese.

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